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2/19/12

“No Tuna, No Jack”

While making the grocery list and discussing how many cans of tuna we want, I suddenly burst into song “no tuna..” and before I could finish my 12 year old jumps in with “no jack” My husband looks at us oddly and then says “oh the song”. Not A song but THE song. My favorite song from my favorite resource for teaching skip counting. This particular song teaches skip counting by 7’s (The Fisher of Men catches a Fisherman)and is based on the gospel story from Luke 5:4-11. Peter has been fishing all night but has caught nothing. He hears a voice from shore that tells him to “throw once more on the other side.” “And because it was the Lord, Peter said ok.” In the 7’s song, Peter is counting the fish that he caught after he threw the net again.

My husband’s favorite song is the 6’s (Martha Martha)which is based on Luke 10:38-42. It starts out “Martha in the kitchen starin’ at the dishes, starin’ at the bones of the picked over fishes.” She’s disgruntled and the song counts the dishes: “there were 6,12,18,24 and 30 dishes on the counter and man weren’t they dirty…” Jesus comes into the kitchen and finds her “strangling a broom.” She changes her tune and the song counts “6, 12,18, 24 and 30 dishes on the counter and now they didn’t seem so dirty.”

I’ve been thinking about the CD and my girls have been encouraging me to post about the 100 Sheep Skip Counting CD but when Marcy announced that this week’s Blog Cruise topic was “share your favorite free or cheap home school resource”, I knew I had to post. This isn’t free, but I’ll let my readers decide if it is cheap. I think spending $12-$14 for a resource used by multiple children and continues to bless them even after they’ve learned to skip count is cheap but that’s just me <grin>

So why has the CD been on my mind? Why did I start to sing “no tuna, no jack”? Supergirl. After BooBear, Turtlegirl, and Tailorbear had moved past skip counting we put the CD aside. In the last couple of weeks, I realized Supergirl needed some help with skip counting. My first thought was “100 Sheep"

I don’t just love this resource because it teaches all the numbers from 2 through 10, nor just because it uses Bible stories but because it is something we all can listen to in the van and we all can enjoy it. I don’t have to cringe whenever Supergirl asks for it. I like the songs. And I’ve improved my skip counting skills, too!

This is a fabulous CD. One Hundred Sheep by Roger Nichols and published by Common Sense Press. I know it is available through Christian Book Distributors and Rainbow Resource. You could also try Amazon.

Disclaimer: This is NOT a review. I know it looks like a review. Ok so maybe it’s a review with a really strong recommendation. I did not receive this product for free. No one has asked me to write this post. I just wanted to share my favorite CD for teaching skip counting.